Bet You Didn't Think MS Could Look This Good by Lisa A. Baeringer is such an incredible but heartbreaking read. I recommend giving it a read.

Special thanks to Lisa for sending me a copy of this!

While reading, I felt Lisa’s anxiety about money and her desperation as she fought to get answers. I felt her frustration and anger as she waited for a diagnosis and struggled to get doctors to listen to her. I felt her helplessness when times got really hard.

However, throughout the novel, I also felt her bravery and strength. She amazed me with her honesty and openness on every page. There was also so much love shown between her and her family and friends. And to top it all off, there was a lovely dash of humor that had me chuckling from time to time.

I did find the book as a whole quite repetitive, but like Lisa states in her intro, this is her diary. This is such a powerful read already, I can only imagine how astonishing it would be if it was edited!


My favorite passages:

“I tell myself if I have to wear an eye patch I’m getting a hot pink one with crystal studs that say “Sexy Mama” on it. I swear my thoughts are too random sometimes.”

“Thanks a lot lady. I get more concern from my dog. It’s like every doctor I’m coming in contact with has some sort of God complex. Since I’m a mystery diagnosis it’s bruising their ego and they want nothing to do with it.”

“You don’t realize the everyday blessings you take for granted until it’s gone. We go about our world worried about money and all kinds of stupid stuff then something like this happens and you see what’s really important. But life doesn’t stop and neither can I.”

“I go for walks to clear my head sometimes and I cherish each foot step I am still able to take on my own.”

“Each time I actually get a good day I begin to feel hopeful only to be let down when another bad day follows.”

“I have to stop looking at other people’s lives and getting jealous about them. I keep thinking about how much easier they have it and how they catch breaks. If I keep up this attitude it will get me nowhere. I’ll only be left feeling resentful and bitter. I need to concentrate on what is good in my life and how much worse it could be.”

“The fire in my right leg burns with such intensity with little room for neither remorse nor reprieve.”

“I hope many of you out there get to have these serene moments where life just takes a back burner and you can live in the moment. Enjoy the nature around you. Enjoy the family and friends that enrich your lives. Most of all enjoy yourself as you, a wonderful and beautiful human being.”

“Some people may scowl at the way our marriage works but I really don’t give a flying nut.”

This book is such an important read. When I first read it, I said that it’s a story that will stay with me for a long time. That was most definitely the case.

This story is heart-wrenching, it's beautiful, and it's extremely captivating. I love how the book is designed and laid out. The text itself is organized in a lovely way that really works with the artwork.

The artwork was also absolutely stunning. I loved that the artist used different techniques to create the dark images that complimented the storyline perfectly.


Favorite passages:
"The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do."

"Stories are wild creatures...when you let them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak?"

"There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between."

"You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do."


Would I recommend this book? Absolutely! Five stars! Just make sure you have tissues ready! Even on my second read, I found myself getting very emotional.

This was such a fun read! I cruised through it in just two short sittings. So needless to say, I really enjoyed it!

Not only did I have SO much fun reading this book, it also convinced me to go out and try Honest Tea, embarrassingly, for the first time. And I warn you... if you haven't tried the teas yet...you're going to want to! They are DELICIOUS.

Seth and Barry's story is so inspirational. I love that the book started at the very beginning so we were able to see how things transformed over time! I will admit that some of the more technical things were a bit dry to me, like the math behind their pricing and such things. But overall, I was hooked. I couldn't stop reading because I just had to know what happened next!

The artwork was lovely! It was so simple, but so intriguing. I really enjoyed the element of humor that was in both the text and the art. For example, when Barry was talking to his class about there being a hole in the market, the artwork showed him in a whirlpool, sinking. Then in the next panel, he's asking the class about bubbles, and he's floating in the air on a bubble! Next, they're talking about packaging and he's swimming in a large pile of bottles!

My favorite passage:
As a game theorist, I encourage people to truly understand the other party's perspective. When you put yourself in their position, it isn't what you would do wearing their shoes, it's what they would do wearing their shoes. No surprise, but that's much easier said than done, especially when their shoes don't fit you feet or your worldview.

Honest Tea has helped me appreciate that consumers make decisions every day that can tilt the world a little closer to the one we want, rather than the one we live in.

I may pick this one up again at a later date... we'll see. I just couldn't get into it. I wasn't a fan of the writing style at all, I didn't really care for any of the characters and found one to be incredibly irritating and creepy, and I thought the story was dragging horribly. I still think the synopsis seems great, so perhaps this was just a bad time to give it a read.

True East by Raymond Ahrens is a book that is filled with history, genetic anthropology, oil, murder, and lust, among other things.

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me, but please don't let that sway your opinion. I know a number of people that would really dig this book!

Favorite passages:
Somewhere in the labyrinths of our minds lies hidden the passions of youth screaming to be heard. Embrace that voice and keep it alive.

The mins has no timetable to mend itself.

We've been fighting this battle for years. It's David against Goliath and I'm afraid we're not too handy with slingshots.

History books gloss over these travesties, refer to them with kinder words like migration, resettlement, or roaming but Katy knows the word - and the word is genocide.

"Be careful what you search for," Carla announces, "not everything list is meant to be found."

"Instincts can't be taught. Science, my dear, is all about hunches; the hard word comes improving them."

Morality cuts both ways. It's the sword that judges, but also the one that frees.

Humbug Witch by Lorna Balian is an absolutely adorable read that is sprinkled with humor in both the narrative and the illustration. As an adult reader, I was so interested to see where the short storyline was going. I definitely couldn't have guessed the ending!

I loved the tone and the humor throughout. And oh my gosh, Fred the cat was adorable! Seeing what he was up to in each panel was my favorite.

The artwork was very simple. I didn't totally love it, but it didn't take away from the book at all either.

If you're looking for a fun read for October, I highly recommend this one!

DNF.

This was my most anticipated book for August of 2017. Unfortunately, right away I knew this was going to be a miss. The writing style for both the layout of the book and narrative itself just wasn't for me.

I have issues with varying perspectives to begin with, but sometimes authors can write them in a way that I enjoy. But here, each one seemed just like the other; there wasn't a tone or anything that really set them apart. If I set the book down in the middle of a chapter, I had to go back and see who the speaker was.

I didn't even make it to page 100 before calling this one. I was just far too bored and the storyline was all over the place. I won't be picking this one up again.

I'm a total sucker for thrillers that keep me on my toes. The suspense in Final Girls by Riley Sager was done so well! I found myself guessing at what would happen next and each time... I was wrong! It's one of those thrillers that makes you go, "OH! Why didn't I see that earlier!" or "I KNEW there was something up with x!"

In this book, Riley Sager takes the trope of the "final girl," the sole survivor that manages to stagger away from a massacre with serious injuries at the very end of a horror movie, and shows us what happens next.

First things first, I have to say that I LOVE that this book starts off with a major bang; an intense scene from the past. This hooked me immediately! We then jump to the present, and slowly learn what had happened through flashbacks, until the past and the present meet in one final standoff.

I loved the element of the flashbacks because I felt that this really helped add to the suspense. On one hand you just wanted to know what had happened in the past, but on the other you can't wait to see what happens next during the present! However, sections of each did tend to drag a bit (more on that later).

One thing that I really enjoy as a reader is when authors include foreshadowing. But not just any foreshadowing, the type that I totally don't pick up on until the very last minute. So many times I literally gasped out loud, groaned, or said "No!" once I realized what the author had been dangling right in front of my face the entire time. There were also a bunch of red herrings that totally threw me off (in a good way, of course!).

Needless to say I really enjoyed the storyline and the writing style!


Beware, the negatives:
I can't say I really cared for any of the characters, especially not the main character. They were all developed pretty well, and I enjoyed how we learned more about each of them as time went on. But I just thought that they were pretty unlikable characters in general, though not nearly as bad as Girl On The Train.

After the incredible first two pages, the book slowed way down. For the quarter of the book, I found myself quickly reading through the current day so I could hurry up and read the bits from past. But even then, quite a bit of the past was just boring. About halfway through, I found that my feelings switched; I was more interested to see where the storyline of the present was going vs. the storyline from the past.

There was a little consistency issue when it came to the main characters thoughts about suicide. On one page, she says she never considered suicide, but pages later she lists her top two preferences for suicide "if it ever comes to that." So clearly she had thought about it enough to make a list.


My favorite passages:
There’s safety in numbers, yes, but also uncertainty.

In my mind, that hour is a blackboard completely erased. There’s nothing left but dust.

We were, for whatever reason, the lucky ones who survived when no one else had. Pretty girls covered in blood. As such, we were each in turn treated like something rare and exotic. A beautiful bird that spreads its bright wings only once a decade. Or that flower that stinks like rotting meat whenever it decides to bloom.

I start to hyperventilate again, my body wrapped by a series of lung-scraping gasps. The sudden lack of air makes me woozy.

I'm the moth that got careless with the flame. Now I'm engulfed.

It feels as if gravity has failed and everything once secure and settled in my life is now tumbling in midair, suddenly just beyond reach.

I scream.
Then.
Now.
The two screams collide until I can't tell which is in the present and which is in the past.


My final thoughts:
A bit unoriginal, sure. And I had a few personal irks. But I would still very highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys slow building stories with action packed endings that you will never see coming. Four stars!

Don't Close Your Eyes by Holly Seddon was one of the books that I couldn't wait to get my hands on of the month of July. When I received a copy in the mail from Goodreads, I was beyond thrilled!

I'm so happy to say that this book did not disappoint.

My thoughts:
I'm not usually one to enjoy books with unlikable main characters. And I'm especially not one to enjoy books with an element of cheating... But for some reason I just couldn't put this one down.

I will say that first half of this book really dragged... The storyline bounces between the perspectives of the two main characters in both the past and present. Through each flashback, we very slowly learn more about each of them and how their intense childhoods deeply affected them. At times, I found myself getting a little bored with the storyline simply because it was such a slow build.

However, once it picked up in the last quarter of the book, I could not put it down. I stayed up way too late reading just so I could see how everything turned out!

I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that there was one phrase specifically that was stated by a character that made my stomach totally drop. I can't remember the last time a book shocked me that much! So from that point on, I read frantically! I couldn't believe what was happening.

The writing style was very lovely. It was easy to read, even though some of the content itself was rough. Everything flowed very well, especially considering the choppy format. When books jump around between different timelines and perspectives, I tend to get a little lost, but I had no problem with this book.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from this author!


My favorite passages:

Sniping words had cut through the last little threads that had bound them. And those last little threads, it turned out, had been all that tied Robin to her childhood. She was free, she supposed, but also alone. Entirely alone.

She swung through these loops often. The logical part of her taking charge, then the broken part of her shining a wrecking ball through all that sense.

The more she tried to grasp control any way she could get it, the more slippery her life felt.

She'd thought her family was pretty perfect, once upon a time. Believed that her parents were good and her siblings were forever. But like all good fairy tales, the story was far, far darker than that.

That night, we fell asleep together and when I woke up I wondered if that's how we'd slept when we were in Mum's tummy, but I had to stop thinking about it because my heart felt like glass as it hit the floor.

For one brief moment I'd felt a tiny thread was connecting me to my sister, wriggling its way down the streets and around the parks, tying us together so that I could tug it and find her. But that string's been cut.

My final thoughts:
What a great psychological suspense! I gave this book four stars!

I would very highly recommend it to other readers that don't mind books with unlikable characters and very slow building storylines.